SPECIAL economic zones and tax incentives for graduates to move north have been recommended by the parliamentary committee charged with guiding the development of Northern Australia.

The recommendations from the bipartisan Northern Australia Committee include investigating setting up special economic zones around airports in North Queensland and writing off part or all of university graduates’ Higher Education Loan Program liability, commonly known as HECS debt, in exchange for living and working in remote areas for periods of up to five years.

The plan to reduce university-resalted debt could save graduates tens of thousands of dollars if they decide to move north and live in an approved area.

It is being touted as a way to grow the population and skilled workforce in northern Australia.

Townsville Chamber of Commerce Stephen Motti said the city could capitalise on any changes to taxation rules.

“We are certainly very encouraged by the recommendations around the consideration of special economic zones and tax relief around HECS,” he said.

“It shows a genuine desire to assist population growth in Northern Australia.”

Mr Motti said he hoped the recommendations would be seriously considered by the Abbott Government as part of their policy agenda to develop Northern Australia.

“This well feed into the government’s White Paper process and hopefully these recommendations will hold a fair bit of weight because they are from a bipartisan parliamentary committee,” he said.

Townsville Enterprise chief executive David Kippin said the Abbott Government needed to ensure the right policies were crafted to ensure the best outcome for Northern Australia.

“The thought processes need to be quite lateral,” he said. “To attract population here is going to take some sort of migration change and having a special strategy to help encourage people to go north might be required.”

James Cook University medical student Ebony Bray said the proposal to reduce graduates’ HELP debt in exchange for living in northern Australia would be popular.

“It’s quite daunting to think about what you have to pay off when you finish uni,” she said.

“Anything that reduces your student debt will be popular, especially with people from middle or lower socio-economic situations.

“If moving to the North will wipe off your student debt I think a lot of people will take up that option, as it takes about 10 years to pay it off.”

Ms Bray said once people arrived in the North they would likely stay because of the great lifestyle.

“With my degree a lot of people that come from sown south for the medical program and they change their minds about this part of Australia and realise the benefits to living here,” she said.

“The lifestyle is great here in the North and once people get here I’m sure a lot of them will stay.”

Comments on this story

Shaun Newman of Townsville NQ. Posted at 10:21 AM September 05, 2014

So they are following the Gina scriptures of a low tax zone, one wonders how many LNP politicians it took to arrive at this conclusion (doing the bidding of billionaires) and how little independant thought went into the process lol. The last time any meaningful infrastructure was built in NQ was when Hawke built the Burdekin Falls Dam, sadly no government since 1987 has sought to complete the project and add the originally planned Hydro Electric power station to the dam, to produce much needed electricity supply for our region.

Voter Posted at 10:16 AM September 05, 2014

I'm amazed that the politicians and intellectuals think that the way to bring people to Townsville is to pay them to come. For me, anyway, the way to encourage genuine people (families) to come to the region is to put in place good and appealing infrastructure. There seems to be no problem with understanding this attitude in the South East Corner, so why do politicians find it so hard to believe that similar infrastructure would appeal to people who might wish to make the North their home?

Hope of Townsville Posted at 8:56 AM September 05, 2014

So Mr Jones wants the Department responsible for North Qld decision making to be based in Canberra and not Nth Qld. We have enough problems with the Qld goverment controlling our lives from Brisbane and you want to give further control and decision making to be from the bottom of Australia. You have been in the sun too long Ewan. Someone please talk sense to the man.

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